


Release Me

by XDTAthens



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Existential Horror, F/M, Mental Illness, Multiple Dimensions, cosmic horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2019-07-25
Packaged: 2020-07-19 07:01:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,161
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19969933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XDTAthens/pseuds/XDTAthens
Summary: A small Sigma fanfiction, detailing his life through his eyes and his experience with the Universe, up to his rescue by Talon.





	Release Me

Release. A single word; a sought after noun and a powerful verb. To possess a method of release, of freedom, was to be the most powerful being on Earth.

Not in the universe. No, of course not.

No matter what escape or freedom you seek, what you find can only invariably delay the inevitable, the payment of a longstanding debt to the very cosmos themselves.

Instead of despairing at the idea, Siebren had rejoiced in it, at least at first. His first mistake was in thinking he could cheat the universe.

Oh, the potential he saw in those cosmos. The beautiful, ominous, awesome, terrifying power of the stars, of the vast emptiness. The one problem everyone seemed to think of on this Earth was how to make the most of their infinitesimal, agonizingly slow lives. To achieve this, humans had robbed the Earth of every resource she had until she had been stripped bare. Nothing was left. 

Oh, but he saw the way to freedom. It lay within the stars. Didn’t anyone else see how simple it was?

The answers were right there.

Equations jumped from his mind straight to the board -- those who at a time could only barely keep up, dismissing his ideas as pure fantasy, were now seriously contemplating the logistics of harnessing the power of gravity, of the stars. Repeat something enough times and perhaps they will start believing it as much as you do.

Perhaps… perhaps he had accrued too much good faith. By the time the young man had been sent to the ISS for research purposes, he was well known throughout the world as a talented, brilliant astrophysicist who had revolutionized quantum mechanics. Perhaps the praise that had been stacked upon him made him arrogant. Perhaps he had made the mistake of gaining too much hubris.

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps.

In that single moment of brainblasting terror, it was as if the Universe spoke to him. He gazed into that abyss, the black hole drowning out all sound, all light. It was a tiny thing, but it was still inescapable. A part of him hadn’t just gazed into the abyss; it had jumped in and never come out.  
He knew sirens were blaring. He knew people were pounding on the doors to get him out of the room and into safety. He knew this, he knew it, but no sound registered. No light.

He tried to breathe, and the universe laughed at him.

It was such a quiet, sultry tone. She was the Mother of All. The infinite nothingness. The void. The only thing that mattered.

You’ve led a life full of sin, haven’t you young man?

Young man? Who, him? He wasn’t young, he was…

Where had his hair gone? Since when had it been grey? Since when had he been bald? Since when, since when, since when.

The freedom, the release you so desperately desire… you have done more to reach it than most.

The stars were no longer separate. The invisible threads he had always seen had tightened, bringing the massive, gaseous giants together to form a collar and chains. And the chains… oh lord, his hands were bound.

Why was he in a jumpsuit? Since when had he changed?

Breathe, Siebren, breathe.

A moment. Another moment. Nothing.

He couldn’t breathe.

You wanted freedom so badly. You did so much to get it… I suppose it is only fitting I reward you. But there are things worse than chains. You are but an embryo, just barely formed in the heart of an egg. To separate from this fragile vessel would be a death sentence. And yet you push, and you push, and you push. I shall free you from this plane. Collapse, thank me, scream, but never dare to ask me for anything again. In time you will be begging for the chains. At least then you knew your place.

Silence. He was met with silence.  
No… no, no, no it wasn’t silence. There was a soft ticking, a rhythmic beating on a piano. The same composition over and over and over.

Oh, how Siebren wished to know it. He had never been much of a music consumer before now (whenever now was), but the distant piano taunted him. It never grew closer, yet never left him.

Sirens. Red. He could see again. But he wasn’t in the space station.

Of course you aren’t in the space station, you dolt. Haven’t you been listening to the melody?

This voice was not sultry. It was not feminine, it did not have any subtlety in its mockery, only brutish and vulgar words. Accused him of being things he wasn’t; an idiot, a dolt, a clown, a fool.

No. No, that wasn’t true. He WAS all of these things.

Despite this, he still saw visions of himself, throughout his stages in life, in different worlds, different realms, different everything. Fractured. Split. He existed everywhere and nowhere.

Who was he? Who was this man he was talking about? The one he saw in so many stages of life?

His glazed blue eyes fell upon the orange and black jumpsuit and the summation number that served as his prisoner ID.

Sigma. That was right. He was Sigma.

Thrashing, he realized he could breathe again. He could see. The red sirens blared and bled louder and brighter.

Hold it together. Hold it together. Hold it together.

Dear God, hold it together.

His eyes shut tightly as gunshots rang out.

Release me! Release me! I beg of you! I take it all back! Return me to myself! FREE ME!

A piercing cry reached his ears in a voice that sounded too much like his own.

Silence. Nothing.

The sirens faded and for the first time, the distant melody started to change tune. And… was that singing?

He couldn’t place the words, but he definitely recognized the language. Irish Gaelic. Language. Countries. The idea seemed so small for such a vast universe.

But then the singing grew louder and he realized it. It wasn’t a country. It wasn’t a language.

It was the universe.

She had returned to him! She had returned to free him, heard his cries! Though he could not move, tears ran down his face. Relief would come at long last.

A single clawed hand rested on his aged face and he felt a whisper so wondrous that the dopamine in his brain skipped straight past gratification and went directly to his bloodstream.

“Hush now. You’re safe.”

Sigma… Siebren opened his eyes and was met with the gaze of a redhead with angular, pointed features. The technology adorning her body was confusing, and surely much too advanced for anything in 2032.

But it did not matter. Everything made sense. She was the universe. She had come to save him! As her hand touched his cheek, he suddenly regained feeling in his upper body. A shaking hand went to touch the one on his cheek.

“Please, release me.”


End file.
